Raskin Withdraws Candidacy For Fed Role After Manchin Pulls Support

Topline

Sarah Bloom Raskin withdrew as President Joe Biden’s pick for the Federal Reserve’s vice chair for supervision, the White House said Tuesday, one day after Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) joined Republicans to oppose Raskin’s confirmation as the central bank’s top regulator.

Key Facts

Raskin told Biden she is withdrawing from consideration due to “relentless attacks by special interests,” in a letter obtained by the New Yorker.

In a statement, President Joe Biden said Raskin was “subject to baseless attacks from industry and conservative interest groups.”

Her nomination was likely doomed after Manchin said Monday he is “unable to support” Raskin, citing her views on energy policy and suggesting she may be too partisan.

Forbes has reached out to Raskin for comment.

Key Background

A law professor, Raskin previously worked as deputy treasury secretary and served on the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors during the Obama Administration. In January, Biden nominated Raskin to be the Fed’s vice chair for supervision. Her nomination drew support from progressives like Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), but Manchin and Senate Republicans have criticized her belief that financial regulators and the Federal Reserve should take the risk of climate change into account when setting rules and crafting monetary policy. Raskin said in a confirmation hearing last month she didn’t intend to use her role as the Federal Reserve’s top bank regulator to stop financial institutions from lending to fossil fuel companies: “Banks choose their borrowers, not the Fed,” she told senators. Some Republicans have also questioned whether Raskin used her connections to help the fintech firm Reserve Trust get approved for a “master account” with the Kansas City Federal Reserve in 2018, when she served on the company’s board of directors (Raskin and the Kansas City Fed have denied any wrongdoing).

Tangent

Raskin’s nomination has been stalled in the Senate, along with several other Fed picks, including Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, whom Biden nominated to a second term last year. In a statement Tuesday, Biden urged the Senate to advance his other Federal Reserve nominees.